The Indian Navy will be the first of the country’s three armed services to induct new-generation software-defined radios (SDR), following a contract signature on August 8, 2019 with state-owned Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), the producer of the SDRs. It was on November 29, 2017 that the Defence Acquisition Council of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had cleared procurement of these SDRs, valued at Rs.490 crore (US$70.64 million). More than 260 SDRs of different types are being procured under the Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDDM) category.
While the MoD-owned Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) designed and developed the SDRs, it was assisted by multiple agencies, including the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR), and the Indian Navy’s Weapon and Electronics System Engineering Establishment (WESEE). The contract involves the replacement of existing hardware-based legacy communication sets with software-based multi-band, multi-functional and multi-role/mission radios. This is to enable secure communications for improved information sharing and situational awareness. The SDRs feature domestic waveforms capable of providing a wide range of frequency usage and capability enhancement. The DRDO had worked on the Integrated Development of Software-Defined Radio (INDESDR) project for eight years. Following the development of the radios, the DRDO conducted user-trials for five different SDRs, all of which will be seamlessly interfaced with the Indian Navy’s new-generation digitalnetwork (NAVNET).
On October 16, 2018, Vedanta Group’s Pune-based Sterlite Tech, a digital networksand telecom solutions company, bagged a Rs.3,500 crore contract from the IndianNavy deal to design, build, operate and maintain the NAVNET. The multi-year contract includes design, execution, operationsand maintenance of the NAVNET. Sterlite Tech will build arobust integrated communications network that would provide a secure,reliable and seamless digital highway to the Indian Navy foradministrative and operational applications. This network will give theIndian Navy digital defence supremacy at par with the best navalforces in the world, Sterlite, which also manufactures optic-fibrecables domestically. The initiative includes creation of anindependent high-capacity end-to-end communications network, linkingmultiple static Indian Navy sites and India-administered islands, andincludes the setting-up of highly secure data centres and Big Data contentdelivery software-defined next-generation networks. This is the firsttime an integrated end-to-end digital network at such a scale is beingbuilt in India, empowering the Indian Navy to secure the country’s borders tillthe farthest posts in India. The technology will also enable the IndianNavy to ride new-age applications with advanced security solutionswhile bringing real-time situational awareness and faster decisionmaking.
Other Services Networks
At the apex-level is the Army Strategic Operational InformationDissemination System (ASTROIDS), which connects Army Headquarters tothe Command Headquarters and forward to the Corps Headquarters whilerearwards it will connect to the national command post, the otherServices and other national level entities. The latter portion dealingwith the national strategic level will be enabled through the C4I2SR(Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Intelligence,Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) System when it getsestablished.
The Army Static Switched Communications (ASCON) system’s third-tier, commissioned in September 2006, is called Mercury Thunder and it forms the backbone communications network of the IndianArmy. ASCON provides voice and data links between static command/formation headquarters and those in peacetime locations. It is of modular design so that it can be upgraded as better technology becomes available. As a back-up,the Indian Army also deployed the static fibre-optic ArmyIntranet, known as the Army Wide Area Network (AWAN) February 24, 2006. Mercury Thunder builds on Mercury Streak that created anoptical fibre cable (OFC) network for the Army in 1995, and MercuryFlash that provided a microwave network in 1998. Mercury Thunderenables the integration of its predecessors with a satellite-basedoverlay that enables seamless transfers over all three systems. It enables thetransmission of real-time battlefield data to top commanders duringhostilities and also enables a qualitative improvement in relief andrescue operations when natural disasters strike. Mercury Thunder raises the number of channels on whichvoice conversations can be simultaneously transmitted from 120 to 10,000. Since ASCON supports amix of voice, data and video transfer, the number of channelsavailable at any given time would depend on what mix of the three wasadopted.
Field-level Command Information Decision Support System (CIDSS) isunder the command and control of the GOC Corps Commander. Field-level‘Project Sanjay’ Battlefield Surveillance System (BSS), ‘Shakti’ Artillery CommandControl and Communications System (CCCS), Air Defence Control andReporting System (ADC & RS) and Battlefield Management System (BMS)are all bound by the CIDSS as the backbone, also configured tointegrate field-level systems like the EWS and ELINT (the Samyukta/Himshaktisystems). in an effort to present a holistic picture to a commanderand his senior staff officers to ease the decision-making process. Thesecond vital link will connect the Corps Headquarters forward to theBattalion Headquarters. This will be the Tactical C3I (Command,Control, Communications and Intelligence) system or tac-4g, which will use the 4-G cellular telecommunications networks already established by BSNL, as well as those if private-sector service providers like Reliance JIO.
TAC-4G is based on a flat-IP networkarchitecture which provides flexible and fast communications betweenmany users. This includes fast-and-secure communications betweendifferent points and support of concurrent running of multipleapplications, many of which require high bandwidth. The highflexibility of TAC-4G along with additional inherent capabilities suchas information security, on-the-move network infrastructure, andsupport of multiple applications, positions the system as an optimalsolution for addressing the complex military communicationsrequirements. TAC-4G also supports a wide variety of multimediaapplications and allows quick and easy addition or removal ofapplications. It also implements the ‘network-centric warfare’principle; allows various-level commanders the highest level ofcontrol and effective activation of various warfighting, logistics andmaintenance forces; allows, real-time battlefield management andcontrol; uses the cost-effective commercial cellular networkproviders’ infrastructure, which allows shorter implementation timeand fewer risks in comparison to other alternatives that are not basedon COTS infrastructures.
Air Force Network (AFNet) is an Indian Air Force (IAF) owned, operatedand managed digital information grid. The AFNet replaces the old communication network set-up using thetroposcatter technology of the 1950s making it a true net-centriccombat force. The AFNet project is also part of the overall mission tonetwork all three armed services: that is the Indian Army, Indian Navy andthe Indian Air Force. Commissioned on September 14, 2010, AFNET is a fibre optic-based network on which the integrated air command, control and communications system (IACCCS) of the IAF rides. Italso provides a real-time sensor-to-shooter loop, which will enableIAF commanders to make instant decisions to order the weapons to bedeployed. AFNet is a dedicated fibre-optic network that offers up to500 MBPS encrypted, secure bandwidth. It incorporates the latesttraffic transportation technology in the form of IP (InternetProtocol) packets over the network using Multi-Protocol LabelSwitching (MPLS). A large VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) layerwith stringent quality of service enforcement facilitates robust, high-quality voice, video and conferencing solutions. All major IAF formations and staticestablishments have been linked through a secure Wide Area Network(WAN) and are accessible through data communication lines.Decision-makers can now get intelligence inputs (for example, videofeed from UAVs, real-time air situation pictures from AEW & CS platforms etc.) from far-flung areas atcentral locations seamlessly.
AFNet can be described as a perfectexample of public-private partnership. The Rs.1,077 crore project,which started in 2006, was developed by Bharat Sanchar NigamLtd (Department of Telecommunications DoT), HCL Infosystems andCisco Systems in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The DoT started the project in the previous decade toset up a dedicated fibre-optic network for the exclusive use of Indianarmed forces at a cost of Rs.10,000 crore. As per the agreement, the DoT is required to lay about 40,000km ofoptical fibre cable connecting 219 army stations, 33 naval stationsand 162 points for the air force (so far, work pertaining to the air force and navy has been completed). In exchange, the armed forces have released thefrequency spectrums.
SDR Manpack For Indian Army
SOFTNET Combined SDR-Tactical Data-Link
BNET-AR Combined SDR-Tactical Data-Link For Tejas Mk.1A L-MRCA
Airborne Internally-Mounted Fire-Control System For BrahMos-A ALCM
SATCOM Terminals For India’s Strategic Forces Command
These are the very terminals now being used by the authorities in the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and in Ladakh for command, control and communications.
BrahMos-1 Quad-Launcher For Project 15 DDG Mid-Life Upgrade
Other Elements Of Project 15 DDG Mid-Life Upgrade
Following exhaustive competitive evaluations, Spain-based INDRA, in which US-based Raytheon owns a 40% stake, had in late 2016 bagged the contract for supplying through the MoD-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) the naval version of the 3-D all-digital LTR-25 L-band air/surface search radars for both the four Project 15B guided-missile destroyers, and for the seven Project 17A guided-missile frigates, as well as for the mid-life upgrade of the three Project 12 DDGs (that will replace the THALES-BEL RAWL-02/PLN-517/LW-08 L-band air-search radars). Each LTR-25 unit is composed of a primary radar integrated with a secondary radar and an operation and power generation sub-systems. The LTR-25 is capable of digital beam-forming, direct radio-frequency sampling, monopulse technique of operation in elevation and azimuth, clutter-rejection, as well as ballistic missile detection and tracking.
